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Pinholes while painting the interior my RV

Daniel Martinez

I'm New Here
I'm sorry if I don't know the terms in painting, but according to my research what's happening to me is called pinholes. I have these little dots of contamination, like those little balls of lint that you get in your clothes.
I've cleaned the fuselage thoroughly, vacuumed it, compressed air, then water and alcohol until it was spot on clean.
I built a homemade paint booth with an inlet and an outlet all amounting to positive pressure to avoid drawing dust into it, I wet the floor to avoid dust or fallen paint from rising back up into the cabin but no luck.

RV painters, How have you approached this? Any advice?
 
Fisheye

I'm sorry if I don't know the terms in painting, but according to my research what's happening to me is called pinholes. I have these little dots of contamination, like those little balls of lint that you get in your clothes.
I've cleaned the fuselage thoroughly, vacuumed it, compressed air, then water and alcohol until it was spot on clean.
I built a homemade paint booth with an inlet and an outlet all amounting to positive pressure to avoid drawing dust into it, I wet the floor to avoid dust or fallen paint from rising back up into the cabin but no luck.

RV painters, How have you approached this? Any advice?

If the surface was clean and dry then...
Is it possible they are fisheyes? They are usually contamination from the air supply. Usually condensed water in the line but also can be oil. Do you have a filter at the gun?
 
You also should use new hose dedicated only to painting. I like a very flexible hose connected to a dedicated new regulator and water separator inside the paint booth. The line to the paint booth regulator should also be new but you might be able to get away with a used one there. As per the previous post a filter at the gun is essential.
 
If the surface was clean and dry then...
Is it possible they are fisheyes? They are usually contamination from the air supply. Usually condensed water in the line but also can be oil. Do you have a filter at the gun?
I'm pretty sure those are not called fisheyes, I've had those and improved my surface prep because of that. I do have a water filter on my paint gun. Here's a picture of how the surface looks: https://imgur.com/a/juwfKwQ

Thanks for the reply, Larry.
 
You also should use new hose dedicated only to painting. I like a very flexible hose connected to a dedicated new regulator and water separator inside the paint booth. The line to the paint booth regulator should also be new but you might be able to get away with a used one there. As per the previous post a filter at the gun is essential.
Hi, Bruce.

Here's a picture of the problem I'm having: https://imgur.com/a/juwfKwQ do you think this is a problem of air contamination on my gun? I'll look into that dedicated hose.

Thanks.
 
That's just dirt...flying fuzzies, furry funk.

You mentioned building a positive pressure paint booth. Plastic sheet ceiling? They tend to dump dust when the fan is first turned on and the booth inflates.

Seal the booth with everything ready to go, start the fan, let it run a few minutes, then tack rag all surfaces just prior to spraying.
 
Tack cloth

That's just dirt...flying fuzzies, furry funk.

You mentioned building a positive pressure paint booth. Plastic sheet ceiling? They tend to dump dust when the fan is first turned on and the booth inflates.

Seal the booth with everything ready to go, start the fan, let it run a few minutes, then tack rag all surfaces just prior to spraying.

Nope. Not fisheye. Like Dan said. Just floating debris. Hard to elimate but a tack cloth helps.
 
Overspray collects on the top and sides of the booth and falls when you step in and the booth flexes. And it comes from the fan. And your clothes. And the hoses. And the floor. And inside your parts, etc.

You can make a few changes to make it better but it's just about impossible to get rid of 100%. Make sure you have filters on the inlet air. Wash down the sides, floor, etc after each use to knock the junk loose. Keep the floor wet. Clean hoses throughly. Switch out the ceiling and/or floors for 3m masking film (or similar product that paint will stick to instead of slough off). Don't use paper towels!

Mask off any openings in the parts with paper and tape. Don't use plastic unless it's masking film (NOT painter's plastic).

The best thing to do is have all your paint supplies in there and do it all in one run. Mix paint & let induce. Take your spray gun and spray your parts with just air to knock stuff loose. Wipe down parts with W&G remover using lint free rags, tack cloth. Wait. Wipe down one more time with tack cloth and spray. Then sit in there until the product flashes (this part is usually not possible unfortunately).

If you need to go in an out a few times be sure to tack cloth just before spraying.

If you're going to shoot another layer of paint or clear you can nib out the trash with a burnished single-edge razor that's been bent a bit. And you can use toothpicks to pull out some trash when the paint is wet but you will potentially leave a small divot where it laid.
 
If they are tiny little pimples where the paint extends off the surface like a tiny little hill, they are entrapped dust, usually picked up from the air and not residing on the surface. If they are truly pinholes, where there is little rise from the surface and they have a noticeable tiny hole in the paint surface (sometimes looks like a tiny crater), it is solvent pop. Fisheyes are quite distinguishable and generally much larger than what one would call a pinhole.

I am unable to completely eliminate dust when painting in my garage, though there are several tricks to reduce it. I resolve to the fact that everything I paint needs to be cut and buffed, due to not having a paint booth. I found the greatest reduction from wearing a tyvek paint suit. Most dust comes from the painter. Grounding the part also helps a lot. The spraying creates a lot of static and the higher the guns air pressure, the greater the static produced.

Larry
 
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Thank you all

Mr. Martinez: thanks for asking the question.

Larry, Bruce, Larry, John, Jacob, Dan: thanks for the education. Wow!
 
I have a plastic sheet booth as well. I wet the walls and floor right before i paint, and wash the whole booth down and replace the floor plastic between major sessions.
 
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Use a tack cloth, but also filter your paint. Sometimes dried paint flakes make it in there from the edge of the can.
 
Overspray collects on the top and sides of the booth and falls when you step in and the booth flexes. And it comes from the fan. And your clothes. And the hoses. And the floor. And inside your parts, etc.

You can make a few changes to make it better but it's just about impossible to get rid of 100%. Make sure you have filters on the inlet air. Wash down the sides, floor, etc after each use to knock the junk loose. Keep the floor wet. Clean hoses throughly. Switch out the ceiling and/or floors for 3m masking film (or similar product that paint will stick to instead of slough off). Don't use paper towels!

Mask off any openings in the parts with paper and tape. Don't use plastic unless it's masking film (NOT painter's plastic).

The best thing to do is have all your paint supplies in there and do it all in one run. Mix paint & let induce. Take your spray gun and spray your parts with just air to knock stuff loose. Wipe down parts with W&G remover using lint free rags, tack cloth. Wait. Wipe down one more time with tack cloth and spray. Then sit in there until the product flashes (this part is usually not possible unfortunately).

If you need to go in an out a few times be sure to tack cloth just before spraying.

If you're going to shoot another layer of paint or clear you can nib out the trash with a burnished single-edge razor that's been bent a bit. And you can use toothpicks to pull out some trash when the paint is wet but you will potentially leave a small divot where it laid.
Wow, this was a great explanation, thank you. I just have one question, why not painter's plastic?
 
Wow, this was a great explanation, thank you. I just have one question, why not painter's plastic?

Painter's plastic is for catching drips when you paint your house. When you use it with sprayed paint, the paint doesn't adhere. Best case it comes off in a big piece. Worst case, it dries and sloughs little particles as you spray. Sprayed paints dry extremely quickly, so when you use it to mask the part, the plastic flaps in the breeze and throws the dried paint everywhere while you spray.

Use masking paper or masking film to mask.

The painter's plastic works ok for the booth as long as you maintain it and clean the ceiling and sides after each use.
 
Clean your gun

Then clean it again. Always completely disassble and thoroughly clean the spray gun. Before spraying paint, spray some reducer on paper and check for any foreign material. When adding paint into cup, always use a paint filter.

Hope this helps.
 
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